China’s fashion industry struts its stuff for sustainability: can small players match Uniqlo, Nike in going green?
- Environmentally friendly innovations are bubbling up in China’s fashion industry, such as a synthetic leather made from beer-brewing waste
- But sustainability efforts are fragmented, and insiders say more coordination is needed to ensure progress toward climate-change targets
Shanghai Fashion Week is China’s biggest fashion gala, a chance for domestic designers and brands to showcase their latest collections and spark off trends.
But this year, some catwalk shows during the autumn event were about more than the new looks adorning the models.
At a quiet garden hidden in the city’s busy Xuhui District, Karen Du, the head of Shanghai-based R.I.S.E. Lab, an organisation dedicated to sustainable fashion, delivered a speech to around 100 well-dressed guests who were gathered to watch a fashion show.
The show that followed featured striking designs from three young Chinese designers from prestigious fashion institutes including Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art. All of the clothes had one thing in common: they were made with Vegatex, a vegan leather derived from beer residue provided by Budweiser Brewing Company APAC, the Asia-Pacific arm of AB InBev, the world’s largest brewer.
Vegatex, made by a Shanghai start-up of the same name, is billed as the world’s first barley-based leather. By-products from the brewing process account for 30 per cent of the material’s composition, replacing petroleum-based chemicals normally used in synthetic leathers. The production process is also pollution-free, and the material is odourless and free of harmful substances, according to the company.
